This invention relates to a system for providing access to the contents stored in a container, and for sealing the container such that if the sealing system is tampered with physically visible changes in the sealing system will record the tampering.
Manufacturers are continually seeking more tamper resistant containers in which to ship and sell products intended for human consumption. Such products include over-the-counter medications and foods, e.g., candies, spices, etc. In recent years containers used for many of these articles have the port through which access to the contained product is to be made sealed at the time of filling the container and the seal is not to be broken until the buyer of the product makes the first use. Examples of such systems include: snap-on-caps taped to the container so that the tape has to be cut in order to remove the cap; screw-on-caps which are affixed to retaining collars by perforated metal rings that break in two so that the cap separates from the retaining collar when the screw-on-cap is first removed from the container; tape or plastic film adhesively mounted over the mouth of the opening to a container which have to be torn away in order to remove products from the container. Also used for packaging products which are not supposed to be tampered with are so-called blister pacs, in which, for example, individual pills of medication can be stored in separate compartments that are emptied by rupturing a wall of the blister container.
Excessive difficulty in accessing the packaged contents is not always the primary purpose of these sealing systems. Instead these sealing systems are in part intended to assure that the packages are not inadvertently opened, or accidentally opened by, for example, children, and that if opened such opening is in some way permanently recorded. To achieve these dual purposes containers have been fitted with rupturable parts which must be broken prior to opening the package. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,018 to Giggard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,915 to Destler, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,255,928 to Foster.